I think this isn’t the first time this issue’s been brought up because I know Jbarks once wrote about it as well last year or the year before but a certain photographer at a show I went to a couple of days ago has forced me to want to write this post.
Gig photography has grown increasingly popular the past couple of years and while I do appreciate what they essentially do for us the audience (take pictures for us to remember said show/performance and capturing important moments in local music history) the increasing number of young punks who think they’re bona fide photographers just because they own a dslr is becoming such a problem, its become irritating for us the audience.
These young punks basically had their daddys or mummys buy them cameras and they suddenly think their good enough to be gig photogs. They come into shows carrying their camera bags with pride but basically don’t know shit about basic photography or know the photo taking etiquette when shooting shows. They take photos lousy in composition, stand in front of you for way to damn long blocking your view of the band and are unaware of their surroundings.
Said show I attended last week was an event I had to cover for work and said photographer basically stood in front of Ronny and I for so damn long we couldn’t see anything unless we leaned forward which then caused us to block the people seated beside us. Yes it was a seated show, you’d think he’d have been more aware that he was blocking us when he stood there but no he didn’t at all. Every other photographer in the venue knew what to do except for this young punk.
He was even given an official photographer tag so I knew I was going to end up viewing his pictures and passing them to my editor. I’ll send anyone his official web link if you wanna see the pictures. They were as predicted, horrible. Bad composition (hello learn the 1/3 rule please! Also, chopping some one’s head or arm out of the picture automatically makes it a lousy shot cuz you made the person look like he’s decapitated and learn how to focus please. Also if you don’t know how to work with light don’t be a gig photographer cuz you clearly overly relied on you flash which you didn’t even use properly) and told no story whatsoever. The performers ended up looking horrible in the pictures too. I predict the designer’s gonna have one hell of a time trying to make those pictures work for the publication. Wayne Umehara would have screamed at him till he pissed his pants if he was in our photog class.
So kids, what I’m really trying to say is, if you don’t know the basics and you don’t know how to use light and you don’t know the proper etiquette then don’t bother being a gig photographer. Go learn the basics and improve before you dive into it. We have enough extremely talented people taking pictures (even if they rarely come out to shows to shoot nowadays) for shows for the time being. And no, just because a scene kid tells you your pictures are awesome that it really means they’re awesome.
logical explanations for my insane life 